American History: As War in Europe Expands, US Continues the Policy of Neutrality

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STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

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Germany's attack on Poland and the start of World War Two in Europe presented a problem for Americans in September of nineteen-thirty-nine. The United States — by law — was neutral. And few Americans had any desire to fight in another world war. But most Americans did not like Germany's Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. They hoped for victory for Britain, France and the other Allied powers.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made this clear in a radio broadcast to Americans soon after the war began.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT: “The overwhelming masses of our people seek peace. Peace at home, and the kind of peace in other lands, which will not jeopardize our peace at home. We have certain ideas, and certain ideals, of national safety, and we must act to preserve that safety today and to preserve the safety of our children in future years. That safety is, and will be, bound up with the safety of the Western Hemisphere and of the seas adjacent thereto. We seek to keep war from our own firesides by keeping war from coming to the Americas.”

STEVE EMBER: He praised the British and other allies. Finally, the president called on Congress to change the neutrality laws that prevented him from sending arms to the allies to help them fight Germany. Congress agreed to change the laws so foreign nations could buy American arms.

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In the months that followed, Hitler and his allies claimed one victory after another. German and Soviet troops captured Poland quickly in September of nineteen thirty-nine. Then Soviet forces invaded the small Baltic nations of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

In late November, they attacked Finland. Fighting between Finland and the Soviet Union continued through the winter, until Finland accepted Russia's demands.

Fighting grew even more fierce the following spring, in nineteen forty. Germany attacked Denmark and Norway, defeating them easily. In May, German forces struck like lightning through Belgium and Holland. Within one day, they were in France.

British and French forces were unable to stop the Germans from moving deep into northern France. The British finally had to flee from the European continent. They sailed back to Britain from the French town of Dunkirk.

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German soldiers marched through France. And Italian forces joined them by invading France from the south. Soon, Paris fell.

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These are German newsreel narrators describing German troops entering Paris and the fall of the French government.

A German supporter, Marshal Petain, took control of the French government. And France — beaten and crushed — was forced to sign a peace treaty with Hitler.

Now it was just Britain alone against Hitler and his Axis allies. Only the English Channel separated the British people from a German army that seemed unbeatable.

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was forced to resign. The British people turned to a new leader, Winston Churchill.

WINSTON CHURCHILL: “I speak to you for the first time as Prime Minister in a solemn hour for the life of our country, of our empire, of our allies, and, above all, of the cause of freedom. A tremendous battle is raging in France and Flanders.